P R O L O G U E

Flash back to the beginning of June 1999. What were you doing? I was lying in the gravel outside my house in North Burnaby, BC, under my Datsun 510 installing a set of T/C rod bushings. It was raining and after I was done I was filthy and decidedly uncomfortable. It was at that point that I decided to sell my car. I loved it dearly, but I couldn’t afford to keep it much longer and to be honest, I wasn’t having any fun anymore wallowing around in the gravel (no garage). I ended up putting it up for sale that week, which was pretty hard for me. To my surprise, it sold before I could really have a chance to think twice.

I had been all ready to go to Robotica back in 1998 with my robot Mr Smashy, but since then my interest in robot combat had waned. At one point I was even contemplating selling my R/C gear. During the summer though, with BattleBots being organized, my interest returned. I had already come up with an idea for a new robot, and with a bunch of money about to come in, I decided that I really should make it to BattleBots. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t go, and all the work last year would have gone to waste.

Before I could lay out definite plans, I had to convince someone to go with me, as I couldn’t afford to take the trip by myself. Enter Steve and Ed. It was just as simple as asking them: "Hey, you guys want to go to LA?" and they were in. I booked a rental car and a motel.

I lost possession of my car on June 25th, and I set to work on Son of Smashy, the details of the robot are here. To make a short (5 week) story shorter, I took Mr Smashy, cut half of the frame away, bolted it into a welded steel frame, reduced the drive train by 3.5 times, added a custom wound torsion spring, winch and a 6 lb splitting maul. Then covered it in lexan. I took it right down to the wire getting the robot ready. I had all of about 5 minutes of test driving time before the day we were supposed to leave.

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